Friday, May 15, 2009

Night of the Grasshopper Mouse

I just received a copy of Night of the Grasshopper Mouse by Chris Ruggia. It is great for all ages and a really excellent story that gives all kinds of information about animals that live in Texas in a fun and exciting way. It's both a great story and very educational. I learned a lot myself from reading it. For instance, I had never heard of the grasshopper mouse, a mouse that sometimes eats other rodents and lets out a "howl" with a long, high-pitched squeak, like a "miniature wolf". I highly recommend it, and if you're interested, you can get a copy from his online store.

This 28-page comic is a printed companion to Ruggia's webcomic, Jack Adventures in Texas' Big Bend. As he puts it, "Jack is based as closely as I can manage upon actual natural history: the habitats, behaviors, and diets of the animals living in Texas' Big Bend area." It really is admirable how much of the story is factual while still being very entertaining.

Chris was also kind enough to send me a hand-drawn sketch of his version of the Mighty Andar, below. I really like seeing other artists' interpretations of my characters.

1 comment:

That's neat, Andy! I like that he does sketches from his site. I also like the idea of animals telling about other animals from THEIR OWN points of view; it actually tells you about BOTH animals, the tellers and the subjects.

Thanks for the tip... I'll have to pick up a copy of Grasshopper Mouse.